ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a history of quantification and the datafication of education. Teacher attrition and burnout are increasingly recognised as an international policy problem that is related to the rise of standards and evidence-based accountability. Educators are often cast as part of a problem of declining standards; with data proposed as the logical mechanism to monitor and ensure quality, and the justification for ever more education reform. Policy makers and politicians have increasingly used global datasets, most commonly Programme for International Student Assessment, to justify national reform efforts. The large-scale quantification of Australian education has largely been enabled by a sustained push for federal involvement in education policy despite the fact that it is a state responsibility. International comparisons of education systems have moved from narrative description to judgements based on standardised, numeric data. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
